By Wendy Underhill
Florida’s Legislature may have thought it was done for the year—but, no. It has a new job to do, and just 100 days to do it. It must redraw district lines for eight congressional districts.
But wait … mid-decade redistricting? It happens sometimes.
This new legislative task is required as the result of a Florida Supreme Court ruling on July 9 that says the existing maps, created in 2012, do not meet state constitutional muster.
The case hinged on Florida’s constitutional provision that says districts may not be drawn to “favor or disfavor an incumbent or political party.” This clause was added in 2010 by a citizen-initiated ballot measure that was approved by 62 percent of the voters. (Actually, two ballot measures were approved that year: one for congressional districts and one for legislative districts.)
Florida is relatively unique in having such a requirement. All states are expected to meet a variety of “traditional districting principles,” but being politically neutral is typically not one of them.
The traditional principles are: compactness, contiguity, preservation of counties and other political subdivisions; preservation of communities of interest; preservation of cores of previous districts; protection of incumbents; and compliance with the Voting Rights Act. See NCSL’s Redistricting Law: 2010, chapter 5, for more.
Other states will watch the upcoming flurry in Florida with interest. But this ruling will have no direct effect on the other 49 because, of course, the Florida Supreme Court holds no sway outside the Sunshine State.
As reformers across the country continue to push for limits on partisan gerrymandering, however, other states are keenly interested to see if the Florida approach is workable when it comes to trying to take politics out of redistricting. Many long-time redistricting practitioners maintain states will never be able to take politics out of redistricting because it’s an inherently political process.
Wendy Underhill directs NCSL’s Elections and Campaigns Program.
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